Temuera Morrison discusses his return to the Star Wars galaxy as Boba Fett, son of his original Attack of the Clones character Jango Fett in The Tragedy, the 14th chapter of the second season of The Mandalorian. Showing Fett in full flight, Morrison discussed his fighting scenes in the episode.
In “The Tragedy,” Fett and Shand end up joining forces with the Mandalorian to battle stormtroopers in a stylistically energized, visceral, and often brutal sequence. (It is, indeed, an unmistakably Robert Rodriguez episode through and through.) Morrison’s Fett, in particular, is all clenched teeth and anger. Part of this feel stems from Morrison’s own culture. “I come from a warrior background in New Zealand,” he says. “I’m a Maori and I’ve been trained. It gives me something to draw on. I was trained as a young boy back in New Zealand in the art of our haka [warrior dance]. ‘Ha’ is the breath, and ‘ka’ is the fire. I’m using my warrior background as a source of energy and as a source of confidence.”
Morrison connected with Rodriguez on the shoot — even sharing guitar chords on down time — and worked together to fully realize Boba as a force to be reckoned with. “Within Boba, if he decided to erupt, he’s like a small volcano,” Morrison says. “And Robert was drawing a little bit of that out of me, as well. So when we do those fight sequences, there is a bit of rawness there, there is a bit of brutality there.” Fett’s weapon of choice in “The Tragedy” is a staff, which he uses to greatly satisfying effect in smashing stormtrooper helmets. If you were wondering, that is, in fact, Morrison wielding it, as he’s fluent in the Maori art of stick fighting. “I was able to bring that into this production. Robert could see that I could use the weapon and swing the stick around. In our own culture, we have a staff that’s called a taiaha. I’d been trained in that as a young boy, as well,” he says. “I’m trying to push it into a nice place. You don’t want to get this guy upset. He’ll rip you to pieces.”
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